Harmonica group turns 10

Started in 2012, the group has students across ages

One of the smallest musical instruments, the harmonica, has a foundation dedicated to it in Vidyaranapura. Registered this year as a foundation, the group which started 10 years ago, has 9 to 82-year-olds as students.

Saitejas Chandrashekar, founder of Hamsanada Foundation, who was working in a school earlier did a summer workshop in 2012 for the harmonica. “I had 15 students in my first workshop. Every year more students enrolled. By 2013, I had joined the Bangalore Harmonica Club, and some members from the club, who visited my school batch’s valedictory function, insisted on them performing at the Harmonica festival. This is how Hamsanada was born,” he says.

The group grew as they took on more events. “‘Harmonica Vaibhava’ is held as a culmination of a summer workshop. ‘Reeds and ragas’, a thematic concert programme, is held to promote the instrument and its artistes. The pieces presented are mostly film songs, but Karnatic ragas and fusions have also been showcased,” says Saitejas . While the classes were initially for school children (class 3 to 10 students), it expanded to office-goers and homemakers. “In 2016, I started my first batch for adults. Even grandparents enrolled themselves,” he recollects.

The foundation’s name comes from the Karnatic raga ‘Hamsanada’. “It is a beautiful raga and thus the name. Our logo depicts all sorts of people coming together to learn music,” he says.

Popularity factor

Not many know what the harmonica is, says Saitejas. “Even I didn’t know that there are so many types of harmonicas. In the ‘70s and ‘80s it was a popular instrument, but with the advent of technology, it faded. It was never considered a serious musical instrument,” he says, stating the reason behind founding the group and events.

Though Saitejas is a chromatic harmonica player, he also owns diatonic, chord, bass, and tremolo harmonicas.

Harmonica, though not a new instrument, still doesn’t have as many performers, compared to other instruments like the tabla. “This could be because there are not many teachers of it around. It is a self-taught instrument. Thanks to social media groups, slowly harmonica players connected over the years,” he says. It is Bollywood songs like ‘Yeh dosti’, ‘Mere sapno ki rani’ and ‘Sanwle salone aaye din bahaar ke’, and Kannada songs like ‘Kaanadante Maayavadanu’, which brought attention to the instrument again, he adds.

Upcoming event

‘Harmonica Vaibhava’ will be held at Seva Sadan on June 3, 4 pm. “All the students, children to elderly, will be performing in different batches. Most of the tracks performed will be film songs,” says Saitejas. This year, awards to maestros from the harmonica world in Bengaluru, Anur Keshavachar Krishnaprasad, Kiran Mandanna and Debashis Dutta, will also be given.

Pandemic effect

Amid the Covid-19 lockdowns, in June 2020, he started online classes. “After the pandemic, I have divided classes into offline and online, based on how far the students stay,” he says.